Here’s how to get a refund if you registered your drone with the FAA

The registration requirement, which mandated hobbyists pay $5 and submit their personal information into an FAA database and attach a registration number to their drone, was relatively mild. However it clashed with an existing federal law that prohibited the FAA from enacting new rules regarding model aircrafts.

Specifically, Judge Kavanaugh of the D.C Circuit ruled that the FAA doesn’t have the authority to “promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft,” and that is exactly what they were doing with their drone registration database.

So the FAA is now offering to refund the $5 paid by people who registered their drones. They also are offering to delete your entry in the registration database, as long as you certify that your drone is being flown strictly for recreational use and will fly “in accordance with a community-based set of safety guidelines”.

If you registered your drone during the introductory period when the FAA waived the $5 fee, you won’t be eligible for a refund.